Thursday, September 3, 2015

On 27 August I saw a colour ringed Sandwich Tern in a small flock of terns resting in Braye Bay, Alderney. Yellow 17T was ringed as a chick on the Dutch Island of Texel. The project leader, Dr Mardik Leopold sent me a lot of information about his project, and this chick, which I have reproduced below, along with his very nice photo!
"Thank you very much for reporting this sighting! Y-17T is
indeed one of our birds. It was ringed, with 311 conspecifics, in the colony
“Utopia”, Texel, The Netherlands, on 27 June 2015, and is the fourth of this
year’s chicks to be reported from the greater Channel area. We prepared a map
(yesterday, so your bird is not on it yet) of all sighting so far. Please have
a look at:

by clicking on the symbols, you will get details on ring
numbers and dates (week numbers).

I think we are seeing a pattern unravelling where some
chicks remain in Dutch waters (for over a month after fledging), producing many
sightings, while some others turning up at some distance. These latter birds
typically disappeared from view at an early stage here and your bird fits this
pattern: see life history below. 17T was seen in the natal colony only once
after ringing, which is not much by our standards, and was not seen at all
elsewhere (same). ".It is wonderful when project leaders reply with such a wealth of interesting information!

Sandwich Tern Yellow 17T, when ringed in June 2015 as a chick on Texel, The Netherlands (c) Mardik Leopold

﻿

When ringed, it was a very average-sized chick, compared
to all the others: its measurements and body mass were placed centrally
in the cloud of data points. I guess that “being average” means exactly
nothing!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Highlights from our 2nd week on Alderney included
our first big seawatch with 219 BalearicShearwaters, one Arctic Skua and
30+ Bottle-nosed Dolphins seen in just one hour from the front garden. While
other seawatches have been very much quieter, a lone juvenile Long-tailed Skua
on 30th August was much appreciated!

While the gull flocks are thinning down, and I have received
my first reports of this year’s juvenile LBBGs from Portugal, I am still
managing to record decent numbers of my colour ringed birds on Alderney. This
week I’ve also seen another of Peter Rock’s LBBGs from South-west England, and
recorded a juvenile Sandwich Tern ringed in June this year on Texel, The
Netherlands. The German-ringed Black-headed Gull is also still present.

Finally, we’ve had a couple of sightings of Grey Seal, and
several very good morning walks with many migrants warblers and chats at Mannez
Quarry and Longis Pond. Today Catherine spotted a Wryneck in Mannez Quarry before I got home from work!

My son, Merlin, also came up for a few days, which was wonderful! Not a bad first full week in Alderney!